


ten drabbles

by abovetheruins



Category: American Idol RPF
Genre: M/M, Ten Songs Meme
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-10
Updated: 2016-01-10
Packaged: 2018-05-12 22:30:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,683
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5683270
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/abovetheruins/pseuds/abovetheruins
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Series of ten drabbles inspired by ten songs, plus a bonus track that I picked out myself.</p>
            </blockquote>





	ten drabbles

**Author's Note:**

> Decided to try my hand at the iTunes shuffle meme from way back. Click on the song title to hear the song!

**1.[I Can’t Stop Drinking About You](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EeBYIElpEPo) – Bebe Rexha  
**  
He throws back the shot almost before the bartender finishes setting it down in front of him, ignoring the knowing look in the man’s eyes as he turns back to the crowd. Synthetic tencho pop pours from the speakers, the dance floor crowded with sweating, roving bodies moving to the beat.  
  
The alcohol warms his throat and chest on the way down, his head swimming a little as he watches the multi-colored lights pouring down onto the crowd. He’s almost blissfully numb, his mind buzzing with half-formed thoughts that filter in too sluggishly to take hold, and just as lazily filter out.  
  
He ignores the weight of his cell phone in his pocket, the last text he’d sent burning in his brain no matter how much alcohol he tries to choke down to erase it. _No one’s gonna love you like I do_.  
  
He turns back to the bartender and croaks out, “Another.”  
  
 **2.[It Ends Tonight](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfdAGkjHGac) – The All-American Rejects**  
  
He doesn’t want to be here, doesn’t want to be having this conversation. It’s past due, though, all of it. The sleepless nights, the persistent ache in his chest every time he glances at his phone and sees no messages, no calls. Every moment they spend in the same room (which grows sparser and sparser as time goes on), barely able to string together two sentences before they fall into awkward silences.  
  
Archie glances up at the man opposite him, taking in his tired eyes, the furrowed brow, the miserable, pinched expression, and he _aches_. They can’t keep doing this. They can’t keep killing each other by slow degrees, missing each other and missing each other until Archie feels like there’s nothing left of him but the hole Cook leaves behind every time they part ways.  
  
It ends tonight. It has to.  
  
 **3.[The End of Heartache](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CDmpjFM1VS8) – Killswitch Engage**  
  
Cook holds his phone close to his chest, the light from the screen illuminating his face. He scrolls through his contacts blindly, thumb hovering over a familiar name before he sighs brokenly, jabbing the power button and letting the phone fall to the bed sheets.  
  
He turns on his side, gaze catching on the window. The curtains are open, revealing the dark night sky outside, starts aglow high above him. His eyes find and trace each one, naming the constellations quietly in the silence of his bedroom, half-remembered from high school astronomy.  
  
He wonders if Archie can see them, too.  
  
He speaks the boy’s name, for comfort, for solace on this dark, quiet night, and feels the ache that had settled in his chest the moment he sent Archie off with a final goodbye bloom anew in his heart.  
  
 _I’m waiting_ , he thinks, and closes his eyes.  
  
 **4.[Just Died in Your Arms Tonight (Cover)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5IhO9LaN-E) – Faber Drive**  
  
He never would have pictured himself here, wrapped in the arms of another man in some dark corner of a concert venue. A boy like him, making those soft, whimpering sounds as another’s lips and teeth and tongue pressed against, entwined with his own? Never.  
  
Yet here he was, fingers buried deep in Cook’s hair, gasping wetly against the man’s mouth, so desperate and aching and _hot_ that he feels half-crazed with it, out of his mind with everything he feels.  
  
Everything Cook _makes_ him feel, like he’s dying, consumed in a raging inferno and burning to ashes, being reborn, made new.  
  
It’s a rebirth of fire, singing through his veins and filling his lungs, and oh, what a lovely way to burn.  
  
 **5.[Love Don’t Hate](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRQVOIkuEQE) – David Archuleta**  
  
He stands in the doorway, fists clenched at his sides as Cook regards him. There’s a wary look in the older man’s eyes, a tightness to his mouth that cuts David to the bone, because he knows he put it there.  
  
He had let his frustrations overcome him: the distance, the missed dates, the missed opportunities – he had allowed it all to pile on top of him, and when the dam finally burst, he had taken it all out on Cook.  
  
Cook, who knew exactly what he was feeling, who knew exactly what he was going through. Cook, who had stood there growing paler and paler as David ranted, until he had finally turned and left.  
  
David wants to explain himself, to beg Cook to give him another chance, to say a million things that won’t get past the lump in his throat.  
  
So he settles for the only thing he can choke out: “ _I’m sorry_.”  
  
 **6.[Blurry ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8GVzBO5V4s)– Puddle of Mudd**  
  
Sometimes David feels lost: lost in the music industry, where no one ever seems genuine. Lost in his own head, where everything feels blurry. Lost in his life, stumbling in one direction only to fall flat on his face.  
  
Cook takes it all away, though. Cook makes him feel grounded, makes him feel sure. Cook makes him feel _found_. In a sea of unfamiliar faces, Cook is the only thing that’s real.  
  
David tells him that, stumbling over his words more than usual in the dead of night, speaking softly into the phone and wondering what Cook must look like, miles upon miles away.  
  
Cook’s soft, sleep-hoarse voice fills his ears, and when he tells David, “I’ll always steer you true, Arch,” David believes him wholeheartedly, knowing it’s a promise Cook will never fail to keep.  
  
 **7.[Say It, Just Say It](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CzE76GCTbtk) – The Mowgli’s**  
  
Cook knows exactly how Archie feels about him, knows it in the way the boy’s eyes will stray to him constantly, picking him out in a crowd with an ease that seems to come naturally to him. He knows it in the way Archie curls in close to him, leans into him rather than away whenever Cook grabs him in a one-armed embrace or drapes himself all over Arch’s shoulders.  
  
Cook’s content to wait for Archie to finally give in and tell him – he’s in no hurry, and honestly, knowing that the object of his affections likes him back fills him with a giddy rush of happiness that he’d like to ride a little longer.  
  
That doesn’t mean he’s going to complain when Archie grabs his face one night while they’re jamming in the Idol house, a determined little frown on his face as he pulls Cook down and kisses him, inexperienced and a little clumsy but so fucking sweet that Cook just melts into it.  
  
Looks like Archie’s finally done waiting.  
 **  
8.[Taking Over Me](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMkWGoI-GpY) – Evanescence**  
  
He wakes up from half-formed dreams, the visions in his head melting away like wisps of smoke, and lies panting in the darkness of his bedroom, filled with heat and loss and shame.  
  
He throws off the covers, sweat clinging to his brow and slicking his hair. He presses his head into his hands, breathing deeply, trying to shake off the chaos coursing through him.

God, he’s a fucking mess.  
  
He glances up at the mirror above his dresser, taking in his ragged face, his tired eyes, and he cracks. He can’t keep going on like this. The dreams are worse than not knowing, almost, and another night of them is going to kill them.  
  
He has to find Archie before he loses his mind.  
  
 **9.[Criminals ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0DG7-eFKquE)– David Cook**  
  
They’re being hunted like animals, chased through the streets and across state lines by a man with a reach far longer than they can hope to outrun.  
  
But Cook doesn’t care, can’t, not with the young man at his side, hand clasped tightly in his own as they drive away, into the night, no clear destination in mind and with all of their meager belongings thrown in the back seat.  
  
He glances over at Archie, taking in the slow, sated smile on the boy’s face, his serene expression. There’s not a trace of fear in him, not anymore, not since the moment he took Cook’s hand and they made their escape. There’s only a sureness – a surety in Cook – that possesses him now, and Cook vows to be worth it with a fierceness that sets his free hand clenching around the steering wheel.  
  
They’ll run for their lives, for as long as they can. It’s going to be one hell of a ride.  
  
 **10.[Beautiful](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TradzLzLXIo) – Akon**  
  
David sees the man by the bar, his head tipped back as he laughs.  
  
David can’t take his eyes away. The bright eyes – dark, rich hazel – the tousled hair, the slow, easy grin – David catalogues them all with a glance, something warm and dark shivering in the pit of his stomach.  
  
When the man looks up, seemingly able to feel David’s stare, David gasps and looks away, back to his drink and the cracked, dirty table it sits on. His ears burn with embarrassment.  
  
A tap on his shoulder draws him up short, and he’s almost unsurprised when he turns and sees the man leaning over him.  
  
“Want to dance?” he asks, voice low and friendly, almost teasing. David swallows hard, wanting to say something, anything, but the man’s face is too close, and in the end David can say nothing at all.  
  
But he can move. He curls his palm around the other’s, feeling the calluses, the warmth of the man’s skin, and allows himself to be swept off his feet.  
  
 **Bonus:[Meteor Shower (Extended Edit)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8SMcixGyI5c) – Owl City**  
  
He feels like a new person around Cook – a version of himself which he had never known, another David Archuleta that lay buried beneath years of shyness, of insecurities, doubts.  
  
He’s felt that shyness around Cook, and insecurity. Not because of anything Cook’s done, no, just because Cook’s so… different. From him. From anyone that David’s ever known. He’s loud and wild and brash at times, and loves so intensely that David wonders how he hasn’t riddled himself apart with it, the strength of the love he gives to everyone around him.  
  
To David. And David thrives on it, Cook’s love, Cook’s friendship. He feels made new in the presence of Cook’s regard, and he hopes – desperately – that Cook never lets him go.


End file.
